"Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph."

Two lovers run toward each other in slow motion across a meadow filled with flowers and butterflies, arms spread, totally suffused in the joy of their meeting, as Tchaikovsky's Love Theme from the Overture to Romeo and Juliet or Pachelbel's Canon in D (or some other piece deemed romantic) plays on the soundtrack.

Sometimes subverted by interrupting one lover's run violently — sniper rifles are a popular way of doing that — creating Mood Whiplash. The trope is also very often subjected to merciless parody.

Spoofed in Fullmetal Alchemist in "The Flame Alchemist, the Bachelor Lieutenant and the Mystery of Warehouse Thirteen", where Havoc tries to imagine Major Armstrong's sister, and gets an Imagine Spot of Armstrong in a wig and dress doing a Meadow Run. It turns out that she's actually really hot. She turns him down though.

Tadao Nagahama LOVES this trope. After his Robot Romance Trilogy actually did show romantic premises with Voltes V and Daimos, the ending credits depicts the Reunion Runs accompanied by heartwarming Award Bait Songs (The Gou brothers to their father Dr. Kentaro Gou, Kazuya with Erika.)

Parodied, although they aren't in a meadow. After a "break up," Soul and Black Star run at each other in slow motion calling each others' names with Love Bubbles in the background.

Parodied in the final chapter of the manga. Maka and her father are shown running towards each other, only for Maka to run past him and into Marie's arms.

Renton and Eureka did this in episode 47 of Eureka Seven when they reunite with each other.

An early filler episode of Dragon Ball Z has villains Vegeta and Nappa land on an alien planet. On a whim they decide to act heroically, killing the tyrannical ruler, and reuniting two lovers. The final scene has the lovers doing a Meadow Run towards each other... then Vegeta blows up the planet.

Toriko has the female Battlewolf and her child start running towards each other... Only for Bui to fire a laser through the mother's body.

A variant here in Billy Bat, with the lovers running to each other from across a train station.

Appears during a montage of romantic-film-tropes in The Muppet Movie, along with rowing-a-boat and meeting-on-a-foggy-noir-street-corner-in-the-40's. Piggy & Kermit meadow run at each other - but when they meet in the middle, Piggy keeps going and Kermit ends up running backwards.

Used in The Pirate Movie when Mabel first sees Frederic on the beach. Somehow they end up riding horses on the beach moments later.

The trope comes from one of the film versions of Wuthering Heights with Up to Eleven use of Say My Name. "Catherine!" "Heathcliff!" "CATHERINE!" "HEATHCLIFF!" (This particuler scene was spoofed many times.)

Spoofed in Wagons East, in which the heroes are facing death and each imagines his or her loved one in a brief vignette. The last hero is a redneck farmer whose vignette has him performing a Meadow Runwith a sheep.

Rama and Sita in Sita Sings the Blues after Rama and the monkey army rescue her. He promptly drops her saying he's redeemed the shame upon his name by rescuing her, but since she lived in (actually just outside) the house of another man (the King of Lanka who kidnapped her, but mostly left her alone), people will believe she must have slept with the King and is no longer "pure" — even if she did not.

Happens four times in Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, each time managing to be more heartwarming than the last, mostly because it's kids reuniting with their long-lost pets (or said pets reuniting with each other after one was presumed dead) instead of lovers.

Most Narm-filled moment EVER in New Moon when Aro is seeing Alice's version of the future to prove that Bella will eventually become a vampire. They sparkle as they frolic.

In Bridget Jones' Diary II, Bridget and Mark run towards each other and then together at the beginning when Bridge assures herself she has found her happily-ever-after. It's her Imagine Spot.

After Parris gets his friend Drake to have a critical psychological breakthrough in Kings Row, the film ends with Parris going home, and running towards his new girlfriend Elise across an open meadow.

Live Action TV

Spoofed in the British TV series Ballykissangel where a man and a woman run towards each other across a grassy meadow. When they meet the woman suddenly punches the man in the face.

On the final episode of series 19 of Have I Got News for You, after given his Odd One Out group, Paul Merton begins to ponder the answer. Suddenly, the camera fade-cuts to some footage of Paul and fellow captain, Ian Hislop, skipping through a field in slow motion to sappy soft music for several seconds. Camera cuts back to Paul, who's got a day dreamy expression on his face. He then shakes his head and apologizing, saying he was "miles away". The footage popped up again in the later seasons when Joan Collins hosted in a Dynasty spoof, but aside from that, there was no explanation for it. According to Paul of the Very Best of HIGNFY DVD commentary, he tried for eight years to get that gag onto the show and was rejected two times by two different producers, the third try helped and the gag was put in.

Twisted in the episode "The Stolen Earth" when the Doctor and Rose run towards each other, meeting for the first time since "Doomsday"... only for a single Dalek to appear in the scene and shoot the Doctor without so much as an "Exterminate". And if that wasn't enough, this leads to a pretty damn big cliffhanger as the Doctor begins to regenerate...

Subverted at the end of "The Girl Who Waited": Old!Amy attempts one towards the Doctor (who is in the TARDIS), only for him to slam the doors shut and lock them (as Old!Amy cannot exist inside the TARDIS at the same time as normal Amy). Then he lets Rory chose which one he wants.

A beautiful, bromantic Meadow Run happens during Season 1 of Chuck, in Chuck Versus the Sandworm between the titular geek and his BFF Morgan.

A rather one-sided Meadow Run (taking place in an office, but still using the slow-mo and romantic music) occured at the end of a 3rd Rock From The Sun episode in which Dick was really happy to see Mary return after she had been gone for a week. Seen here.

Engine Sentai Go-onger spoofed this in one episode when the two female Rangers, Yellow and Silver, do this. Since they were just meeting up to start stage one of their plan to save Yellow's mecha, there was No Hugging, No Kissing, but this didn't stop the blatant imagery from making certain fans Squee regardless.

How I Met Your Mother: Barney Stinson makes a reference to this trope in an episode, when talking about Robin.

Barney: I don't love her, okay, I just... miss her when she's not around, I think about her all the time and I imagine us one day running towards each other in slow motion and I'm wearing a brown suede vest.

Happened in The War At Home between Larry and Kenny after their fathers apologized to each other.

Done in The Goodies between Bill Oddie and his new gal. Then done in the same meadow between Graeme Garden and...his computer. He also tries to push it on a swing, which...doesn't work so well.

Parodied on Bewitched when Mr. and Mrs. Kravitz are reunited after separating.

Catherine-and-Heathcliff was spoofed mercilessly on numerous episodes of Dave Allen At Large. But, then, what wasn't?

Parodied in the SCTV episode "Bouncin' Back to You" when Lola Heatherton and Guy Caballero reflect on a relationship they once had. They run through the meadow, or in Guy's case, wheel through the meadow (he sits in a wheelchair, but for respect rather than being handicapped)

Del: You see, Rodders, I used to have this vision of love. I used to imagine that me and my sweetheart were running in slow motion through a field of buttercups. (Rodney rolls his eyes) We're both, y'know, we're both like that, dressed in white, and, like, I'd done a bit of weight. And suddenly, there in the background, I can here Semprini's Orchestra playing the theme tune from Doctor Zhivago. (he starts to hum the theme, then stops as Albert leaves) Where's he going?

Rodney: He's probably gone to be sick.

In Korean drama Lie To Me, this is done fairly subtly, with Ah Jung waiting at her home, and suddenly running outside, and Ki Jun running from the aeroport. Justified, as one character has been living in a fairly rural area.

Music/Music Video

Spoofed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in a short film meant to accompany the Wedding Album. They dash toward one another on the beach, but then run right past each other and fall over.

At the very end of A Very Potter Musical, Quirrel and Voldemort start to do this, first running towards each other, and then turning around to join back-to-back (it makes sense if you've seen it).

In a Yogscast Minecraft Series special, during Granny_Bacon's funeral, Simon Lane reminisces his time with her, which consists entirely of him and her colliding into each other in a field of wheat and having, presumably, dirty sex.

Parodied in the animated version of Welcome To The Convenience Store. L (the singer from Infinite) is locked in the store and desperate for the bathroom (there isn't one in the store itself). When he sees Eun Ah, the store clerk, return he imagines himself running towards and then dancing with a roll of toilet paper. Unfortunately Eun Ah gets distracted and he's left in there.

In the Phineas and Ferb episode "It's About Time!", Dr. Doofenshmirtz and Perry The Platypus spoof this, somehow managing to still turn it into Foe Yay. They run toward each other on the beach... and Perry kicks Doofenshmirtz in the face.

In the KaBlam! episode, "Won't Stick to Most Dental Work" had a scene where Henry and June were happy to see eachother again after Henry quit, and they ran through a meadow with romantic music playing as they ran up to one another and hugged.

Spoofed in an episode of The Simpsons telling the story of Paul Bunyan. The giant Paul and his normal sized love interest see each other at a distance and run towards each other, but when the love interest realises his true size she turns and starts to run away from him instead.

Parodied in the Beetlejuice series when Lydia and the newly humanoid tree Spooky run to each other.

Played for Laughs in the "Hearts and Hooves Day" episode of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, where Big Macintosh and Cheerilee run toward each other near the episode's end, after being separated by the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Thing is, they were under the influence of a love potion (which the CMC themselves had given) and the separation was necessary for it to be broken. Edges into Mundane Made Awesome as the fllies desperately try to keep them apart.

Spoofed in the Kung Fu Panda Legends Of Awesomeness episode "The Way of the Prawn", when Tigress has an Imagine Spot about her and Yijiro the samurai prawn running towards each other in a meadow. Then they both draw katanas and it turns out they're completely surrounded by enemies and are running towards them, because Tigress's idea of romance is being a Battle Couple.

Real Life

The Church of Scientology had a field dug up and planted with flowers for Tom Cruise and new wife Nichole Kidman to romp in.

Isaac Asimov was once invited to an apparently-tedious US/Soviet diplomatic event, without his wife. When it was done, they were to meet outside the venue. Seeing each other at a distance, they simultaneously ran at each other in a Meadow Run. It was, Asimov later found out, caught on film by a Soviet cameraman, and was shown often on Russian TV for a while.

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